It has been announced that Ben Sheets has signed a 1-year deal with the Oakland Athletics for $10 million and incentives. Sheets will give a veteran, all-star presence to the Oakland rotation assuming he can stay healthy, but this is a strange signing. The A’s are the darlings of the “Moneyball” era. Spending this amount of money on a single year free agent really only makes sense if the A’s intend to trade Sheets at the deadline. Even so, how much of that 10 million they will have to eat is anybody’s guess. Sheets is a 4 time all-star with a career 3.72 era and 7.6k/9ip.

In lesser, but still notable news, OF Xavier Nady has agreed to a 1-year deal with the Cubs pending a physical. The deal will pay $3.3 million in base salary with performance incentives that could ultimately make the contract worth $5.35 million.